Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Gigging for a Career

    There are some people that like working for an organization, sacrificing some compensation and flexibility for stability and security. Others enjoy the chance to experience constantly changing environments and a rich variety of projects at the expense of regularly searching for new work. Neither is necessarily better or worse than the other, and these aren’t polar opposites. In the real world, each includes some of the advantages and disadvantages of the other.

    For many of us that work with data, we realize there are some advantages to understanding the business meanings and implications of the information derived from data. Indeed, those that tend to work with the same types of data become fluent and comfortable manipulating and discussing how analysis, transformation, and more relate to that type of data. This leads me to think that someone that works for a company or stays within a particular industry might be preferred as a data professional for organizations in that space. Maybe this is someone that an organization wants to hire and retain over time.

    I ran across a piece that discusses the Gig Economy from the perspective of data professionals. Their view is that many data professionals would rather work on interesting projects, and analyze data that is interesting to them, rather than being stuck with a single organization. Certainly from the organization’s view, having very skilled professionals available for project work means less costs in training, benefits, hiring, etc. While the cost per day might be high, there is no need for an ongoing, or at least not a constant, commitment.

    I do think that many of the changes in technology have made it possible for talented workers to find plenty to keep them busy and earn a very good living. However, there’s a cost in spending time looking for projects on a regular basis. It takes not only time, but mental strength and a desire to be a bit of a salesperson and marketing professional. Some people may find long term clients that call them over and over, which isn’t that different from working for an organization unless you can interleave a number of clients together on a regular basis. However, most people that work at “gigs” are regularly spending time looking for work.

    I would postulate that most of us prefer some amount of security and stability, preferring to work for an organization for a period of time. While we may change jobs at times, it’s often at a lower pace than those that might prefer to work in the Gig Economy

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.6MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • SQL Clone Server Service Permissions

    SQL Clone is amazing, and it can really save time and disk space for many organizations. I’ve got a series posted here on various little things I’ve learned about the product. There are also a number of articles on the Redgate Community Hub.

    I was working on helping a customer install the SQL Clone server recently and one of the things that the client wanted to know was what are the minimum permissions needed for the SQL Clone Server.

    When you install the SQL Clone server, the configuration dialog asks you for a Windows account and password. This is noted in the documentation as the account that configures and starts the server.

    sqlcloneserver

    This means that during the configuration, this account will:

    • Create a local service on the Clone Server OS
    • Connect to the SQL Server specified
    • Create a new database (or use the one that exists)
    • Map itself to dbo in the new database

    If the SQL Server can be a remote SQL Server from the SQL Clone server, a domain account is needed. If this is a local SQL Server, then you can use a local account. The account does need to have local administrator privileges.

    With that in mind, here’s what I did as a minimum permission set:

    • Create a new domain account, SQLCloneServer (I want to be able to use a remote SQL Server. I left this as just a member of Domain Users.
    • Add this account as a local administrator on the SQL Clone server host.
    • Add this AD user as a login to the SQL Server that will host the configuration databse
    • Give the SQL user the dbcreator role (you can remove this later and leave them with permissions inside the db)

    That’s it.

    Scripting

    It’s always better to script. Here’s the AD part in PowerShell:

    New-ADUser -Name “SQL Clone Server” -GivenName “SQL” -Surname “Clone Server” -SamAccountName “SQLCloneServer” -UserPrincipalName SQLCloneServer@mydomain.com

    Here’s the local SQL Clone, web server permissions part, using local commands. This could be in PoSh, but it’s not as clean (to me).

    net localgroup Administrators "MyDomain\SQLCloneServer" /add

    Here’s the SQL Part

    USE [master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [MYDOMAIN\MySQLCloneUser] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
ALTER SERVER ROLE [dbcreator] ADD MEMBER [MYDOMAIN\MySQLCloneUser]
GO

  • All DevOps All Day

    There is no shortage of webinar events taking place for technology professionals. From our monthly Redgate DevOps webinars to the GroupBy conference to PASS Virtual chapters, there’s a huge set of online events that you can attend and learn from. It’s gotten to the point where you could have a full time job watching webinars if you could find someone to fund your efforts.

    Every year PASS does a 24 Hours of PASS, which is a neat event where 24 hour long sessions in a row are broadcast. It’s a lot of work to get this going, and certainly not many people want to watch 24 hours in a row, but it does seem to be fun. That same idea is being taken a step further tomorrow with All Day DevOps 2017.

    There’s still time to register and attend a few sessions, or even throw a party (or join one) with fellow technical professionals. Maybe this is a good way to take a break from work and still be productive. This might be one of the cheaper conferences you could attend this year. Maybe you can even convince the boss to get some t-shirts with the savings.

    As you might have guessed, I’m a part of this event. I submitted to DevOps East, a conference in Orlando next month, but they also picked me up for the online event, so I’ll be watching and speaking tomorrow. This is an interesting format as it’s not just 24 sessions. It’s over 100 sessions, with 2, 3, or 6 sessions going on at the same time. There are some long sessions, some short ones, all covering different aspects of what we call DevOps.

    Whether you think DevOps is a fad, the idea is silly, or are excited to start building software better and faster, I’d urge you to take a few minutes to scan the schedule and see if there is anything that catches your eye. You might learn a bit on how to change your culture, or improve security, or implement automation. There are even some testing sessions, which I’m looking forward to watching.

    Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, learn a bit more about DevOps and have an informed opinion. Don’t just judge the movement on the media hype. Listen to some real technical people talk about the ways that they are trying to improve software.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.1MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • Monday Night Networking at Summit 2017

    Next week is the PASS Summit in Seattle. Thousands of SQL Server professionals are going, many coming Sunday or Monday for a pre-conference session before the main event. For a number of years, Andy Warren and I have run a networking dinner on Monday night, but we’re stepping back this year because of scheduling.

    Luckily, Lisa Bohm has taken over the Monday Night Networking dinner, and you can RSVP for the event from her blog. Andy and I are thrilled that Lisa is managing this, and we’d ask for a couple things from you:

    • Pass the word to others, especially first timers. Blog, tweet, post on LinkedIn and Facebook. Let people know.
    • It would be nice if a few of you would volunteer an hour of your time to help Lisa greet people and introduce first timers to others.

    I’m sorry that I won’t be there. I’m coming late to the Summit, as is Andy, so please help a little and make this a success.